Prep Bowl: Two-point conversion debate continues, 25 years later

Blaine senior quarterback Tom Newman is tackled by Cretin-Derham Hall's Bert Sager on a two-point conversion attempt in the 1988 Prep Bowl at the Metrodome. White Bear Lake's Bob Kranz is the head linesman covering the play. It is the 25th anniversary of the play that gave Blaine a 25-24 victory with two seconds remaining in regulation time. Kranz ruled that Newman made it in on the play. (Photo courtesy of Cretin-Derham Hall football coach Mike Scanlan)

On the wall of Cretin-Derham Hall coach Mike Scanlan's small office is a photograph of a defining moment in the Raiders' rich football history.

The framed, black-and-white action shot from the 1988 Prep Bowl shows Blaine quarterback Tom Newman getting tackled by Cretin-Derham Hall defender Bert Sager at the goal line on a two-point conversion attempt with two seconds remaining.

Did Newman make it?

Twenty-five years later, the debate rages on.

The Prep Bowl completes a 32-year run at the Metrodome with its final championship games Friday and Saturday, and perhaps no moment has produced as much discussion over the years as the one commemorated in Scanlan's office.

"I look at it every day and still wonder. But hey, what can you do?" Scanlan said with a shrug.

Newman was credited with the two-point conversion, giving the Bengals a 25-24 victory over the Raiders in the Class 2A championship game at the Metrodome.

"I can't believe it's been 25 years," Newman said last week. "I'm just as sure today as I was then: There's no doubt in my mind that I made it in."

The Raiders, not surprisingly, disagree.

"I don't think he made it in," said Mal Scanlan, the Raiders' co-head coach at that time with Rich Kallok, and now offensive coordinator for his brother Mike. "The play was on our side of the field. We were looking right down the sideline. He didn't go inside the pylon."

The victory gave the Bengals their only state championship in five title-game appearances.

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It was the first of five for the Raiders, who have won two big-school titles.

None of Blaine's or Cretin-Derham Hall's championship games -- or any other final, for that matter -- has stood the test of time for drama and debate like this one.

Two penalties against the Raiders, a late hit and pass interference, put Blaine on Cretin-Derham Hall's 15-yard line with 10 seconds on the clock. Newman, looking for a quick out pattern to throw a pass, saw nothing but open field in front of him as he rolled out.

"It was like the sea had parted," he said. "I couldn't believe it. I had to go for it."

After he easily scored a touchdown with two seconds left in regulation, Blaine didn't debate what to do next. The Bengals weren't interested in taking their chances in overtime -- not with Weinke leading the Raiders' offense -- and decided to capitalize on their momentum by going for the two-point conversion and winning or losing the game outright.

"Our (activities director) at the time would have fired me if I hadn't gone for two," said Dave Nelson, the Blaine coach that season and now the head coach at Minnetonka.

"I was really excited to know we were going for it," Newman said.

But then a subplot, one that few outside the Blaine football program knew about, quickly developed.

The play called for Newman was for an option, but running backs coach Ray Kirch, now the AD at Osseo, mistakenly signaled in the signs for a bootleg.

"As soon as I realized I had done that, I thought we were in trouble," Kirch said. "If you watch the film, you see me talk to Nellie. He's about to signal a timeout out and realizes we don't have one. Meanwhile, I'm quivering under the bench."

Newman, sensing something had gone awry, had to adjust on the fly.

"We couldn't run that play out of the formation they had given us. A lot was going on. It was the Dome, and it was a crazy scene," Newman said.

"The mood in the huddle was calm," said Chad Anderson, a Blaine tight end then and now an assistant coach at Cretin-Derham Hall. "We just knew we were going to figure it out and get it done."

Newman got the Bengals organized and called for a bootleg, faking to the right, before wheeling to the left. He hesitated slightly to see if Anderson was open along the back edge of the end zone, but he was covered by Jeff Rosga.

"I remember thinking that I can make it to the pylon versus throwing the ball," said Newman, who went on to become a goaltender for Minnesota's hockey team. "I felt the longer I waited to make that move for the pylon, the tougher it would be. In hindsight, it seemed like forever. Making matters worse, I realized I had a guy (Sager) closing in on me."

Newman, with the ball tucked in his left arm, tried to dive for the pylon as Sager hit him. After the collision, he rolled out of bounds.

"When I roll out of bounds, that's where people argue that the ball was down," Newman said. "There's no question I was in. The team goes nuts, but we had to stay cool because we still had to kick the ball off to them. I didn't want to give Weinke another chance at us."

Watching the play unfold was head linesman Bob Kranz, formerly of White Bear Lake.

"It was a bang-bang call," Kranz wrote to the Pioneer Press in an email. "I was comfortable with the call at the time, and after seeing dozens of still photos and videos of the play, I remain so today."

Kranz wasn't supposed to be in the position in which he found himself, right on top of the play. He originally was the game's umpire but swapped spots with Richfield's Bill Andersen when Andersen pulled a leg muscle during the game. Andersen's inability to run well, Kranz wrote, necessitated the move because the umpire does the least amount of running. Kranz also was a head linesman on his college football crew, so he was familiar with the position.

Mal Scanlan argued the call.

"I think the guy (Kranz) anticipated that he was going to get in," Mal Scanlan said. "His body position is ready to make the touchdown (signal) before he gets in."

In hindsight, Kallok, who directed Cretin-Derham Hall's defense, said the Raiders should have called time out before the conversion attempt.

"Just to settle everyone down and make sure they stay at home. But I didn't do that," Kallok said. "I was expecting a bootleg. The ball was in the hands of their best athlete. We thought our kid (Sager) made the play to stop him. He felt so bad. Way back then, we believed in the conspiracy theory. We had a whole series of things that happened to us in that game. We won a lot of games, but you really remember the losses."

The play was showed just once on the Metrodome's giant scoreboard ... then mysteriously disappeared, never to be seen again.

The Blaine team received a police escort up University Avenue and was greeted at school by cheering fans. Newman said the Bengals had no clue the ending was the source of debate.

"I was excited to see what the papers had written about the game, but I was really disappointed," he said. "The debate was on the radio, too. I felt like we had a chip on our shoulder because we didn't get a whole lot of respect. Although the outcome is remembered as controversial, that team put Blaine on the map."

Nelson said a byproduct of the game is that he became good friends with the Scanlan brothers.

"That spurred a really good friendship," he said. "They were so classy through that whole thing. If that play hadn't happened, I might not have become friends with them."

Still, playful debate ensues.

"I'm glad I was a part of it. What a great memory," said Anderson, who teaches biology at Cretin-Derham Hall. "When I'm here at Cretin-Derham Hall, I don't know if he made it in. When I'm with my Blaine buddies, he definitely made it in."